Nordic Ecommerce: Stats and Trends

We take a look at ecommerce trends in the Nordics, a market which was worth an estimated €21.9bn in 2016. 
A report on Nordic ecommerce from postnord reveals a mature market which has grown steadily over the past decade.
Using surveys of consumers from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, postnord has been tracking online retail trends in the region for nine years.

Overall Market Stats

The Nordic ecommerce market is now worth €21.9bn, with Sweden being the biggest market, at €8.5bn
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The report defines ecommerce as physical items purchased online and either delivered to or collected by the customer.
This means that sales of services are not included – travel purchases or concert tickets for example.
By comparison, the UK ecommerce market was worth £133bn in 2016, according to IMRG stats.
Other key stats:

• 62% of Nordic consumers made an online purchase in 2016.
• The most popular products bought online are clothing and shoes, followed by media  and home electronics

Mobile Commerce

Mobile commerce is growing throughout the region, though Swedish consumers are most likely to buy via mobile.
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Cross-Border Ecommerce

I wrote about this report in 2012, when 40% of Nordic shoppers purchased from foreign retailers, principally the UK.
Now, 25% of shoppers purchase from abroad, a figure which suggests that Nordic retailers have upped their game over the past few years.
There are big differences between countries here, with consumers in Finland and Norway more likely to buy from foreign sites. 46% of Finnish consumers purchase from foreign retailers in 2016 compared to 29% of Swedes.
The UK and China are the most popular countries to purchase from, followed by Germany and the US.
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Sweden is the next most popular foreign market, with 15% of Nordic consumers buying from Swedish retailers.

What People Want from Ecommerce Sites

There are some important variances in online preferences between the four Nordic countries.

• 37% of consumers in Sweden and 23% in Finland prefer to pay by invoice, compared to 16% in Norway and 3% in Denmark.
• 81% of Danish shoppers prefer to pay by card. The same figure for Norway is 65%, Sweden 35%, and Finland 31%.